


Papa St. Louie

by frechi123



Category: Flipline Studios
Genre: Flipline, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-15 03:50:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11222706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frechi123/pseuds/frechi123
Summary: Penny is the new girl in town. Already she's stuck at a small cramped little house with Sarge Fan, Tohru, and Cecelia - with Bertha as the landlord! Luckily, she finds friends in Sue, Mitch, and the whole soccer team (which is just 5 people at the moment...)! But it's all fun and games until Roy and Joy, the town's pride and joy, go missing. Papa Louie is stressed out, and thinks Mayor Mallow may have hidden them so his son Pinch Hitwell wins "Town Child of the Year" for the first time! Can Penny and her new friends find the siblings before time runs out?





	1. Angry Coach!

I've arrived in Calypso Island. It's hotter than I expected... I'm glad I wore a tank out or I'd be melting into a puddle in front of all these stores I've just been dropped off in front of.

I couldn't get off that bus soon enough, okay? Flipline Transportation has really got to get some sort of seating chart. Also, they need to quit blasting their music so loudly that everyone on other PLANETS can hear it.

Why? Because all the little kids and babies of the world want to scream in perfect unison, that's why! I'm lucky I have experience with screaming kids, so I jam my earplugs as far as they will go into my eardrums. Yet, it's not enough.

"HELLO?!" yelled a voice from my right. "IS THERE A 'PENNY' HERE?!"

Still feeling quite disoriented, and a little embarrased by the sudden outburst, seeming that a few straggling people walking along are now glancing my way as they go, I turned to face whoever was speaking. It was a woman, who was dressed like a coach. Does she not have other clothing choices? I wondered. It seemed I had no other choice but to walk up and set her straight.

"That would be me. I'm Penny," I said, with a small gesture towards myself. The woman squinted at me, looking me up and down. Welp, she's already scaring me.

She crossed her arms, then faced away from me and started walking suddenly. "Good. Now come on. The house is quite a walk from here."

I gave her an incredulous look. "Excuse me?"

She turned back around, her eyes shooting daggers as they narrowed at me. "I'm sorry, am I speaking gibberish?!" She skulked back over to me and leaned in real close, her finger now jabbing my chest with every word. "I don't do cars for distances shorter than 5 miles away. Coach Bertha here - " she took her finger off my now paining chest to gesture to herself " - will not have her reputation tarnished for some newbie. Now either you walk the 2 miles, or your pretty little head can stay on the Boardwalk. Your choice!" And with that she turned and kept walking back the way she came. 

I couldn't help but stand and stare after her. What just happened here?! I thought to myself. Can I really tolerate this crazy lady?? At this point the Flipline bus doesn't seem like such a bad choice. I walked to the edge of the Boardwalk and waited for the next one. Maybe going back to Tastyville wouldn't be so bad...

I was so immersed in my thoughts that I never heard the quick steps shuffling behind me. So when I was suddenly grabbed by the strap of my purple and white tank top, I screamed. But the person who grabbed me covered my mouth before I could scream again, or even yell at them, and dragged me off to... somewhere! In an attempt to turn my head, I caught a flash of black and white stripes. My first thought was getting kidnapped by a prisoner, but that thought was pushed aside for the logical and correct answer. I pulled Bertha's hand off my mouth, and wriggled out of her hold. She merely crossed her arms and said, as calmly as she possibly could: "Why didn't you come after me?"

"YOU are the one that gave a choice to go or stay. So I stayed!" I snapped. "Why did you drag me along if you were lying about the choices?!" I rubbed my shoulder, which was now bare. Bertha had yanked on my tank strap so hard it was now sagging along my upper arm. Great, now I need a new tank top.

"Obviously that wasn't a choice. No one ever chooses to stay when I give them the 'option'. And you're not allowed to stay on the Boardwalk anyhow. Mayor Mallow won't allow it." Bertha's tone was annoyed, but her face looked amused.

"I was going to catch a bus," I said, facing away from Bertha. It seemed I no longer could, when I saw the house in front of me. It's a funky dark shade of green, with some of the paint peeling and a tiny hole in the roof. There's also a downstairs window that's hopelessly broken, with glass shards sticking out in a particularly unforgiving manner.

Hands came down on my shoulder, and Bertha peered at me with a wicked grin. "No turning back now," she said, steering me into the house. And once I saw the door, all chipped and crawling with splinters from the burned off parts, I lost all hope of my sanity OR humanity staying intact. Heck, I'd be lucky if I even made it out of this place...


	2. Roomies and Soccer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny learns more about her roomies, and also meets the soccer team of Calypso Island.

"Bertha, who is that?" That's the first thing I heard when Bertha shoved me into the dipiladated house. Not sure what to say, I kept my head down, so all I saw were scratched up wooden floors, a worn-out lime green sofa back, and three pairs of sneakers all pointing towards us - brown with green lace, green with black lace, and black with pink lace.

"Is this our new tenant?" asked the black-and-pink pair. She shuffled up to me a bit. "Is she okay? What did you do to her, Bertha?"

"I haven't done anything yet!" she hissed at her. The girl cringed at that remark, and as she did I couldn't help but notice her outfit - a skirt and shirt combo with a jacket thrown on anyhow - matched her sneakers.

"What do you mean?" asked the brown and green pair. He walked up to my side and gently pulled on my loosened strap. "Her strap has completely come loose off her shoulder. Cecelia, it's not supposed to look like this, is it?"

"No," said the green and black pair, apparently belonging to whoever Cecelia is. "Bertha, you didn't just drag her here, did you?"

Two different hands reached for my chin and tilted up my head so I could look up at them. I didn't protest or anything; I simply let them. I stared at the worried expressions of the two that have done so, although the black-and-pink girl's was more evident; the eyes of the boy were covered by an army hat, but I could still tell. Cecelia's stern expression was directed behind me, at Bertha, who suddenly pushed hard on my shoulders, growing furious at the responses, causing me to start losing my footing...

"Cecelia, Tohru, and Sarge Fan, I do NOT have time to be playing Twenty Questions with you! Look, she made it in one piece, didn't she?!" She immediately released her grip on me, causing me to fall as I had already begun to slide as she was talking.

"Did she though?" Tohru said, just as Sarge Fan said, "Really?" Hastily, they reached out to take one of my arms and haul me to my feet. Cecelia said, "Bertha, if you want more people to stick around, you need to quit trying to scare them off! Especially - " she flipped her dark brown hair, tied in a funky styled ponytail bun, defiantly - "when they are new to this part of St. Louie."

I glanced over to Sarge, who was trying to adjust his hat. I honestly wanted to know if I would ever see his eyes during my stay here. "Cecelia's right," he said. "Not everyone is used to walking everywhere they go. And even though you may be, it's not exactly practical in this town." 

Tohru, who was adjusting her ponytails, added, "Her attitude is not the only issue here. When will you fix up this house, Bertha? Holes in the place, windows smashed - don't even get me started on all the infestations in the attic!"

I hoped my room wasn't below the attic... or worse, IN it. "May I go to my room now?" I asked. Everyone looked up at me in surprise.

"She speaks!" cried Sarge.

"Wow!" Tohru said, looking at me again.

Cecelia put her hands on my shoulders, gentler this time. "Come on, I'll show you."

******************************************************************************************

Turns out my room ended up under the attic, and worse - without a bed in it. Even though they all said that's how their rooms started out, you think Bertha would've taken a hint. In my room is just a tiny endtable that served as a dresser, and a closet that was as big as the Flipline bus - or at least, 1/3 of it. I scratched my head as I placed my suitcase and backpack (no doubt jostled from the whole Bertha thing) onto the floor. Then I walked to the farthest corner across from the door and sat cross-legged in it.

I started to think of Tastyville, where I left my good friends behind - Maggie, Iggy, Boomer, and Allan. They told me not to go, and of course I hadn't listened to them. "Everything will be fine," I'd said, before boarding the bus and waving goodbye, "what could possibly go wrong?" Famous last words; I saw that now. 

I then thought of all the tenants I had met thus far - the mature and firm, yet kind Cecelia; the quiet and reserved Sarge Fan; and the excited and young Tohru. These three are potentially the key to me not completely losing my sanity in this place. I didn't even want to think of Bertha, the crazy coach/landlord. If I can't click with anyone else in this town she will slowly drive me to the brink of MADNESS. It hurt my head to think about it so I laid my head on the ground and tried to sleep it off.

It must have been a couple of hours since I was out, because when I woke up, it was significantly darker out and something was being kicked into the side of the house. _How was Bertha NOT bothered by this, or anyone else?!_ I thought in my head before stalking over to the window on the adjacent wall to the door and forcefully shoving it open, causing some glass shards to rain down into the yard. I hadn't even realized it was broken. The banging of the foreign object stopped suddenly. Shards aside, I peek outside, where five people were arguing, one of the carrying a soccer ball, but due to shard rain, suddenly turned to stare up at the origin, meaning that five pairs of eyes were now on me. 

"Hey!" shouted one of the girls on the field up at me. She tossed the ball to the girl beside her and moved her cowboy hat over her eyes so that I couldn't see them. "What's the matter with you, raining shards of glass on us during our practice?!"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Excuse me, people are trying to sleep here! Why don't you go kick that ball somewhere else?!"

The other girl glared up at me. "You know our rules. We play soccer here after hours. You should be wearing your earplugs by now!"

I shouted back down at them: " _What_ rules?!"

"Penny?" Sarge Fan's voice came from behind me. I turned to see that he's already donned a purple and black set of pajamas with onions all over them, all wearing army hats. Wow, he really loves the Army Onions, doesn't he? The most shocking thing, however, was his head. His army hat was no longer on it, but in his left hand, as he tiredly scratched his tangled dark brown hair with his free right hand. He's wearing a peach pair of earplugs around his neck and His eyes, which were a dark blue, were squinting into the light of the full moon. "What's wrong? Why are you yelling?"

He noticed the window and walked over to it, about to shut it carefully. He stopped himself, however, and instead peered down and out of it, when he heard the clearing of a throat, and I took a few steps away from the window. "Guys, what's going on?"

"You said you wouldn't open this window again! You know it rains shards down while we practice!" yelled the first girl's voice again.

"Sorry, Peggy," Sarge Fan offered apologetically. "Penny's new around here, so she's not exactly sure how the rules go."

"How did Bertha even manage to swing a new tenant?" There was disbelief laced in Peggy's voice. "Oh well, I guess we're going to have to introduce ourselves, explain the rules. Tell her to come here."

Sarge didn't turn away from the window, but merely motioned me to it. I was already shaking as I stepped up to the window again and glanced down. Peggy's face wasn't nearly as angry as before, but I can't make out any definite expressions on her friends'.

"Let's get something straight," Peggy said, with a little edge to her voice, already making me want to crawl back to my spot away from the window. "Introductions. I'm Peggy, if you didn't figure that out already." She tipped her hat up again so I could see her green eyes piercing right into me. Instead of cowering back, like I was planning to, I merely answered, "Yeah, I did figure it out."

"Anyway," she says curtly, "this is Sue." She jerked a thumb to the blond girl standing to the left of her, who has the soccer ball tucked under her arm. I couldn't help but wonder why she would wear a polo and khakis to a soccer practice, but I decided not to ask and simply nodded my head instead. Peggy continued: "These are Taylor, Doan and Alberto," she went on, pointing at them respectively as she said so - the dark boy in dreadlocks was Taylor, the pale skinned one with glasses was Doan, and the tan-skinned one with the red bandana was Alberto.

I gave them all an awkward wave, and then said, "Now what's this about rules?"

"At this time of night, we have nowhere else to practice because Mayor Mallow says the fields are down by 4 p.m.," Sue said, rolling her eyes as she did so. "So Bertha let us practice here."

"And when the tenants started complaining about the noise," added Doan, "Bertha made it mandatory to wear earplugs by this time so the noise stays controlled."

I nodded. Made sense.

Sarge Fan then said, "Now Penny knows not to open the window and rain any glass down. But would you please not give her a hard time?" He plunked his army hat back on his head again, this time tilted up so his eyes were still visible. "It's rare that anyone wants to come to the St. Louie District of Calypso Island, so let's not chase her away, okay?" And with that, Sarge gave me a sleepy wave before heading out of my room back down the hall his own.

I was about to shut the window with care when something suddenly stuck me in the hand. Definitely glass. Surprised, I yelped quietly, losing my grip on the window, which slammed gracefully shut, causing the laughter that had started from my pain to cease, immediately replaced by ball banging again.

I walked over to the corner again and slumped down in defeat. Why did I ever think this would be a good idea? I should have never come to this place -

A loud scrape sound cut off my thoughts. I glanced up uneasily to see wood shavings fall ungracefully on me, and holes that emerged from the product. I scrunched my face up, moving to another corner, knowing it was going to be a matter of time before some bugs came through them.

Tomorrow... I'll try to go back to Tastyville. Nothing's worth this torture. But first, I'm going to have to ask Cecelia or Tohru if I can stay with them for the night. The last thing anyone undeserving needed to hear were my screams all through the night.


	3. No Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not only can Penny not get back to her home, now she's gotten herself stuck in Papa Louie's long chain of restaurants!

As I trudged back to the Boardwalk, dragging my suitcase behind me, I couldn' t help but already miss Sarge Fan, Tohru, and Cecelia. They were the only people nice to me on my only day in St. Louie.

I sat atop my suitcase, reading a book and waiting on the bus when suddenly the light vanished from in front of me. Annoyed, I glanced up at the rotund man standing in my light. He stared right down at me, as if he were studying me.

"Excuse me, will you please move? You're blocking my reading light, sir." I tried not to lose my cool at him. He simply crossed his arms at me and stayed where he was. I sighed and close my book, then stood up. I ended up staring down at him, since he was quite short. "Fine, _I'll_ move, if you _absolutely must_ stand right here." I turned to move away, but then a hand came down on my shoulder. I turned around and ended up facing him again. "Let go of me, you weirdo!"

"Do you know who you're even talking to?!" he hissed at me, yanking down my yellow-and-blue tank top strap, similarly to what Bertha had done. _How many straps do I have to replace?! Geez!_

"I'm new. Why would I know anyone in this section of Flipline?" I stated matter-of-factly.

He continued to stare and study me, maybe to see if I was lying. "I'm Mayor Mallow, mayor of this here town." He grabbed the front of my shirt slightly and pulled down so that I was eye level with him. _"I don't like being disrespected."_

I settled for staring at his blinding minty green and white shirt instead of his face, with clownish blonde hair attached to the sides of his head and a cheap looking, stitched up hat, still trying to free myself.

"Dad, what's going on?" said a voice from behind. I turned around (to the best of my ability) and saw a basically taller version of the mayor, except he was in a baseball uniform, and the stripes on his shirt and hat also had purple laced inside. He had more hair in his head, though, and it was covered by a quite tiny baseball cap. In his hand he carried a monogrammed baseball bat: Pinch Hitwell. _Well, then._

I turned back to Mayor Mallow. "Please tell me your son is not as bad as you."

He roleds his eyes at me, letting go of my top, then looked behind to his son. "Pinch, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your practice right now?"

"It ended early," he said with a shrug. Then he glanced over to me. "Who's this? I haven't seen her before in St. Louie."

I put my hands on my hips. "I told him I was new here, but he didn't care. Anyway, I was just leaving. I've been here only a day and I already hate it here."

Pinch juggled his bat between his hands nervously. "Uh... you've only been here a day?"

"Yes..." I raised an eyebrow. "What's your point?"

"Penny!" Three familiar voices called out to me in unison before Pinch could illustrate his point. I turned my head slightly to see Cecelia, Tohru, and Sarge Fan all running towards me. I was surprised. What were they even doing here?

Tohru reached me first. She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me in a tight hug. "Do you really have to go?" she asked, tearing up a bit. "You just got here..." 

Sarge Fan put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed tight. "Yeah. You may have only been here for only a day, but we'd miss you if you left."

Cecelia nodded firmly. "It's been months since anyone bothered coming here. You're the only spark we've had in a long time. This town may not be the best, but we treat each other like a family here."

I rubbed Tohru on the back, in an attempt to keep her from crying, when Mayor Mallow suddenly snapped, "You can't move away from here anyway. Not until you lived here a month."

"What?!" I exclaimed in disbelief while trying not to shove Tohru off of me. Sarge raised his hat and an eyebrow at Mayor Mallow. "When was this a thing? We've lived here a year, and I don't remember any law about that.

Mayor Mallow glared at him. "It's a new one, _onion boy._ It had to be done after that last soccer game disaster."

"And whose fault is that?" says Tohru, who crosses her arms while pointing at the mayor. " _We_ told you selling hot dogs on a predicted daily day was a bad idea, but nope! All Taylor and Peggy's hard work went to waste and you rotted everyone out of town!"

Pinch jabbed Tohru in her chest and then grabbed her by her shirt front, lifting her up so she was staring him in the eye. "You don't talk about my dad that way!"

"And _you_ don't talk to Akari's sister that way," Cecelia hisses, taking Tohru away from Pinch, "unless you want her to kick your butt like _last time_."

What was going on?! Everyone was arguing and hissing - and it's all _MY fault_?! Frustrated, I screamed, throwing my suitcase behind me, immediately expecting it to hit the ground with a clang, have it explode open and end up having to fix the contents of it. But I wasn't expecting the groaning that I heard instead. 

"Roy!" Everyone else turned to the voice, collective gasps filling the air, and I nervously turned as well. The person that my suitcase has landed on laid flat on the ground, blinking uncertainly as he dizzily reached for his red and blue hat, skittered a good distance away from him. The man hovering above him took off his chef's hat and scratched his head worriedly. He then glanced up and looked at us, eyes roaming until he finally stopped on me. He narrowed his eyes and furrowed his large mustache.

"Are you insane?!"

I stood frozen with shock on the spot as I realized suddenly who was speaking to me. Words failed me at that moment, so Sarge spoke up instead. "Papa Louie? What are you doing here?"

Papa Louie looked at him, pointing off down the road somewhere. "We were going to visit Joy at her college today." He then glanced back at me, crossing his arms. "But we were sort of interrupted by a flying suitcase."

My mouth finally found the words. "I'm so sorry!" I finally blurted out. I rushed over in attempt to help Roy up. But as soon as I tried to tug him to his feet, he winced and let out a pained yelp. Startled, I dropped his arm again.

 _"What was IN that suitcase?!"_ Papa Louie yelled at me again. He finally approached me, then motioned to Roy, who was being helped up by Sarge and Cecelia. "You need to fix this!"

"But... fix it how?!" I shrieked. "All my money has gone to the House of Crazy! And now I find out I can't even go home, and I don't know what to do!" Mayor Mallow and Pinch were both laughing at me, and I dropped my head in absolute shame. _How could I make such an absolute mess of everything?!_

Tears started to fall from my eyes, and I dropped to my knees, starting to cry for real. I made no attempt to brush them away. Tohru hugged me again, in an attempt of comfort this time. In a tear-stained mess, I lifted my head. 

Sarge and Cecelia looked awfully concerned and worried, all in one go. Pinch and Mayor Mallow kept staring at me smugly, enjoying my misery. Roy still looked disoriented, but slightly sympathetic as well. And Papa Louie was looking at me with an expression I was unable to place. Then he walked over and helped me up.

"Maybe we can make a deal."

I raised an eyebrow, then said nervously, "How...?"

Suddenly, I found a visor getting slapped on my head and a shirt thrown at me. I pried it off my face and looked at it. The shirt was striped with purple, red, and white, sporting a red collar at the top. I stared at it quizzically, before looking up to Sarge and Tohru's suddenly horrified faces.

"Papa Louie, you can't be serious...!" Tohru stuttered, but he merely shrugged, saying, "Nothing I haven't done before."

"Wait... what's going on?" I asked in absolute confusion, and as I stared at everyone, going down the line until finally stopping on Roy, he gave me a dizzy smile, uttering two words in the process that would change my life forever:

_"You're hired."_


	4. Sweet Defeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny works her first day at Papa's Freezeria and, despite getting closer to Alberto, Taylor and Peggy, makes a bad first impression on Hugo and Quinn.

I stared at the Open sign hanging in the shop window, unable to resist wishing it was torn in half about now. That's how shocked I was when Papa Louie flung me into his whirlwind chain of restaurants. Sarge and Tohru, of course, thought the entire thing was insane. Cecelia wasn't sure how to wrap her head around it while Mayor Mallow and Pinch were _exactly_ sure: teasing me like little children. Apparently the thought of me working was a hilarious concept to them.

Anyway, my head was softly banging on the glass separating me from the outside hustle and bustle on the Boardwalk that certainly wasn't there yesterday. It felt as if the universe was trying to punish me by giving me a super busy day.

"Hey, you're Penny, right?"

I whipped my head around to the voice that had spoken, recognizing that red bandana from behind the counter. 

"Alberto!" I pulled myself away from the window, walking up the counter. "What are you doing here?"

He gestured to his body, equipped with the uniform. "I work here. And judging by your outfit - " he gestured to my body now, wearing the shirt with simple jeans, and with the visor on my head - "can I assume you're working here too?"

"Mm hmm. I'm kinda in trouble with Papa Louie right now."

He chuckled. "I'm pretty sure most of the people who work in these restaurants either do something that involves paying him back or winning it as a grand prize." He raised an eyebrow at me. "Got to say, I'm curious. How did you get roped into this?"

I put my hands over my face. "I think I almost put Roy in the hospital."

"Whoa! You've got to be careful around his niece and nephew. He treasures them above all else, even these restaurants. They are the face of St. Louie."

I looked up, out my hands. "'The face'? What do you mean?"

Alberto ducked behind the counter, and the sound of rustling was heard as he looked for something. Then he popped up again and came around the counter, holding something in his right hand this time. He held it up, and I realized it was some sort of poster. It had Roy and a girl, probably Joy, on the front, arms around each other's shoulders and cheesing widely. Above them were their names, and below, were five words.

"'Town Children of the Year'?" I read the words aloud.

Alberto nodded. "Yep. Every year the kids of certain iconic people in St. Louie try to do the most good so they can win this honor. Roy and Joy never do it just for the award, you know? They voluntarily try to make the city great again. That's why they always win."

"Wow!" I exclaimed. "People could learn a thing or two from them."

Alberto nodded again, with an "mm hmm" tossed in this time. But suddenly he peered at something behind me and then pointed to it. "I think we've got customers."

I turned to see 4 people standing in front of the window - two of which I don't recognize.

Taylor walked in first. "Penny?" He noticed me beside Alberto. "You work here now?"

I crossed my arms and nodded. "Yeah, but I kinda got forced into it."

"Peggy and I got our jobs at the Hot Doggeria as grand prizes. You shoulda seen Peggy; she completely flipped out!"

I laughed as Peggy walked in next and thumped him upside the head. "Don't make me tell them what _you_ did when you got the job."

Taylor winced and rubbed his head. "Fine, fine, I won't say _exactly_ what you did in depth. Give me credit, though; I wasn't even going to do that!"

"Sure you weren't," said Peggy. She turned to me. "Hope you don't get infamously known for a bad thing in this biz." She pointed at Taylor. "Did this one tell you about our rotting hot dogs that almost ruined this town?"

"Actually," I said, "I found out from Tohru. She was telling Mayor Mallow about it yesterday when they were arguing about the new " 'month resident' rule."

"That wasn't a rumor?!" Taylor and Peggy said at the exact same time, equally incredulously.

Alberto shook his head. "I told you I wasn't lying. No one wants to listen to Bert."

He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled. "Hey, Hugo, Quinn, come meet Penny!" he called out to the last people still standing outside.

They came inside and shuffled up to the counter. The man looked me up and down while the woman stared at her watch.

"So you're Penny." The man stuck out his hand and I shook. "Name's Hugo, of Hugo's Warped Records. I make stars all over Flipline."

I widened my eyes. "I _knew_ I recognized that voice! You're DJ Honey Buster! All the rage back in Tastyville!"

He grinned. "You have good taste."

I looked over at Quinn, who was still staring at her watch. "Aren't you that lawyer from 'Quinn, Timm and Associates'?"

 _That_ made her look up. "You know who I am, really?"

I nodded. "My friend Allan said he used your services once to be tried as an adult. How is Timm these days, though? They said they didn't see him much anymore."

Quinn looked down again. "He _left_ me," she spoke sharply.

Her head snapped up once more. "And besides, it's 'Just Quinn and Associates' since he left to pursue dancing."

I raised an eyebrow at her as she she looked down again at her watch. "Is the 'Just' really necessary?" I said, leaning over to Alberto. He merely shrugged.

"Don't tell her," Peggy said, "or you'll get your head bitten off. You don't question Quinn - not when she's in a mood like so."

Alberto then looks at Taylor. "You guys want your usuals?"

Taylor, Peggy, Hugo, and even Quinn all nodded their heads in unison.

He turned to me next. "Follow me, Penny - I need to show how you will be working the controls."

I followed him into the back of the store. Four blenders stood tall in front of us, awaiting our touch. Off to the right side were many ingredients we were going to need lined up to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. And over on the left was a funky looking machine with four mini tubes set up to squirt stuff down, if given the chance, on the right half of it, and a giant tube for something else on the left.

"How does that one work?" I asked, pointing to the far left machine.

Alberto sauntered over to it, and pointed at some icons flashing at the top of it. "You press these icons here to choose the flavors. The first set picks the chunks to mix inside and the second one picks the syrup. We get the cups from right here." He reached behind the machine and pulled out three stacks of different sized cups. He pulled a small sized cup off the stack and said, "Observe."

He placed the cup under the giant tube and pressed a large green button with an arrow pointing down inscribed in it at the top. A flow of white ice cream came out of the tube and filled the cup just so. "Gotta be careful on this step - you don't want too little or too much for the cup size you have."

He then pressed the icon for "Yum N' M's". A fair amount of them came tumbling out of the machine from the tube into the cup on top. He slid it under the four tiny tubes now and pressed a pink button for Strawberry Syrup - which came in a thin pink stream from the farthest left tube. He turned to me. "Sort of like the ice cream - you don't want too much or too little."

"Now what?" I asked.

Alberto lifted the cup and took it over to the blender area . He stuck it under the first one, and the blender automatically lowered itself and began to stir. He pushed a pink button over a red-yellow-green warning gauge at the top of the blenders.

"What are those for?" I asked, pointing at the the pink button - and also purple and blue ones beside it - and the gauge underneath it.

"The buttons are mini alarms we had installed the other day," he explained. "Each one stands for a type of blend - pink is chunky, purple is normal, blue is smooth. Right now this one wants a chunky blend, so we use the pink one for this. Don't worry, it won't last that long." Then he motioned to the gauge. "This is for overheating purposes. If the blender goes too fast without a break, it starts moving from green to yellow and finally to red. Once it's red, the blender stops right away and you have to wait a while for the gauge to drop back down to green before it can even work again. But we don't worry much about it before it only applies if we use the turbo functions on them." He pointed at the bottom of each blender, where a grey button with a fast forward sign marked on each one resided.

An alarm went off and Alberto pulled the cup out from under the blender, then walked over to where the toppings were. He took hold on two syrup bottles - Chocolate and Strawberry - and evenly drizzled them over the sundae. Then he reached over and placed a cherry on top and then reached for a red spoon and stuck it in the side.

"Peggy!" he called when we marched back out to the front counter. She walked up and took the cup from him. 

"Thanks," she said, taking a bite out of it. Them she pumped her fist in the air.

Alberto turned to me again. "See? Try taking Quinn's order now."


End file.
